Fibers, yarns and threads, fabrics, manufactured textile articles and laundry have been treated to impart desirable properties to them. They have been made antibacterial, fire-retardant, shrinkproof, stiff, soft, antistatic, soil repellent, creaseproof, permanently pressed, water repellent, and stain resistant. They have been dyed, printed, perfumed, sized, starched and lubricated. Compositions for modifying the yarns, fabrics and manufactured articles made from them have been deposited on the surfaces to be treated as solids, liquids, solutions, dispersions, emulsions, sprays, gases and vapors. They have applied at various temperatures, including those above and below room temperature, although employment at ambient temperatures has generally been preferred.
Treatments of laundry have generally taken place either in the washing machine or after completion of laundering and drying. Thus, laundry has been made soft, antibacterial, antistatic and perfumed by incorporating appropriate materials in the detergent composition or wash water and in some cases, in the rinse water. Sizings, starches, lubricants, such as silicones, water repellents and stain repellent compounds have generally been applied to the laundry after washing and drying, as sprays or in baths. Solvents have been used in the dryer for dry cleaning effects on textiles and water has been dispensed from a container in the dryer to moisten laundry and prepare it for ironing. Powdered absorbents have been mixed with textiles in a tumbling container much like an automatic clothes dryer, to help in removing soil from such articles. Also, pressurized sprays have been used to apply various materials to drying or dried laundry. With respect to softening laundry and making it antistatic, however, the usual method employed in conjunction with the normal home washing process is to incorporate a substantive conditioning agent in the rinse water, from which it is adsorbed onto the laundry, to remain thereon when dried.
Recently, an effort has been made to utilize the dryer for the application of conditioning agents to the laundry in a process which does not greatly modify the ordinary drying operation but allows the coating of the laundry with a conditioning agent during the drying process. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,692, it is taught that particular cationic softening agents may be vaporized in the dryer from flexible papers, cloths and sponges, into which they have previously been absorbed. To make such products, solutions of conditioning agents were used and the absorbents were immersed in such solutions and dried before being inserted into the dryer with a load of laundry. Such a method has been found by the present applicant to be inefficient, since much of the absorbed material is unavailable for application to the laundry being treated. Also, the removal of solvents is often a hazardous operation and is generally costly. Because the active conditioning material might melt, heat should be used judiciously in removing solvent. At times, this necessitates the employment of vacuum or low temperature drying techniques. Accordingly, the present invention is considered to be a significant improvement over the procedures of the prior art.